Pogozelski Named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor

GENESEO, N.Y. -- SUNY Geneseo chemistry professor Wendy K. Pogozelski was among faculty members the State University of New York Board of Trustees named to a distinguished professorship at its meeting May 7.

The board appointed Pogozelski Distinguished Teaching Professor of Chemistry. The distinguished rank recognizes and honors mastery of teaching and constitutes the highest honor conferred by the university system on instructional faculty at state-operated campuses. All distinguished faculty in active service within SUNY are also members of the SUNY Distinguished Academy, established last year.

"One of the board's most exceptional honors is to confer the distinguished ranking upon some of our best and brightest faculty," said Board Chairman H. Carl McCall. "To earn one of the distinguished ranks, SUNY faculty members have shown a steadfast commitment to the students, faculty, and staff at their respective campuses and accomplished high achievement in their field. Congratulations to all of today's honorees."

The board described Pogozelski as "an exceptional teacher and widely-published researcher."

"In bestowing its highest faculty honor, SUNY proudly recognizes the extraordinary achievements of these faculty and the positive impacts they have had on SUNY, on the students they teach and mentor, and on their colleagues both on campus and across the globe," said SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher. "Many thanks and congratulations to today's honorees."

For the prestigious distinguished teaching professorship to be conferred, candidates must have demonstrated consistently superior mastery of teaching, outstanding service to students, and commitment to their ongoing intellectual growth, scholarship and professional growth, and adherence to rigorous academic standards and requirements.

"I couldn't be more pleased about Wendy's appointment," said SUNY Geneseo President Christopher C. Dahl. "She has superior teaching skills and has profoundly shaped the lives and careers of scores of students. She is a widely-published, award-winning researcher and teach-scholar, a dedicated servant of the campus community and her profession, and a role model for students and the entire Geneseo community. For Wendy, teaching is not merely a profession; it's a calling, in the finest sense of the word."

Pogozelski has been recognized at the national level for the excellence of her teaching, as well as her research accomplishments with the Henry Dreyfuss Teacher-Scholar Award. She has mentored dozens of undergraduate researchers who not only learn from her internationally recognized work on mitochondrial DNA but conduct sophisticated, independent research of their own, leading nearly all of them to graduate program or medical schools.

Pogozelski is among 16 SUNY faculty members named this year to distinguished ranks. Since 1973, 45 Geneseo faculty members have received the rank. Since the program's inception in 1963, SUNY has appointed 966 faculty to distinguished ranks: 319 distinguished professorships; 294 distinguished service professorships; 348 distinguished teaching professorships; and five distinguished librarian professorships.